1. Field of the Invention.
This invention relates in general to gaskets that seal between confronting surfaces, and in particular to a gasket for sealing between the confronting surfaces of an appliance door.
2. Description of the Prior Art.
Various gasket configurations are known in the art for sealing between the confronting surfaces of oven doors, refrigerator doors, automobile doors and the like. For instance, household ovens have gaskets located between the oven door and the frame of the oven for cushioning and sealing the heat within. Many of these gaskets are formed of silicone rubber so as to resist temperature degradation and to extend the useful life of the gasket. The prior art oven door gaskets are typically comprised of straight, elongated pieces, each for one side of the oven. Usually, there are three pieces provided, one for the top, and one for each side, with the corners having small gaps between each straight piece. Normally, the pieces contain flat metal strips that extend all or part of the length of the gaskets for removably clipping the gaskets to apertures in the frame of the oven. This allows the gaskets to be removed for cleaning.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,538,381, to Vogel, issued Sept. 3, 1985, and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, shows a continuously extruded gasket with a tubular section which protrudes outwardly from a base. A ductile wire passes along the entire length of the base and allows the gasket to be bent into a rectangular shape for mounting on the oven door.
In spite of the above improvements, I have found that door gaskets of oval, round, square or rectangular cross-sectional shape tend to pucker or distort when bent, thereby forming potential leak paths due to unequal compression requirements, allowing heat to leak from the sealed enclosure. This is a particular problem for an oven door gasket formed of a continuously extruded length of material which is bent into a rectangular shape to fit the door opening.
A need exists for an improved door gasket for sealing between two confronting surfaces which can be bent into a 90.degree. corner which does not pucker or distort in the corner to form a potential leak path.
A need also exists for such a door gasket having a profile which allows the bending distortion at the 90.degree. corner to be absorbed in other portions of the profile than the sealing portions thereof.
A need also exists for such a door gasket which provides improved sealing characteristics at lower degrees of compression than prior art gaskets.